The Giver's Failure
by Kafooni
Summary: The story of how The Giver failed to make Rosemary the receiver of memory. How the Giver grew up a feeling too strong to hurt her.


Hi, this is Kafooni, (Ryan), since this is my first fic, don't expect it to be the best story you've ever read. My fic is on The Giver, I made it about The Giver's experience with his first Receiver, Rosemary. This tells about, in detail, what happened in the time that Rosemary was training. If you haven't read The Giver, and clicked on this for no apparent reason, it's a really good book and I'd recommend it to anyone. So, read on and enjoy. (Hopefully you enjoy it.)  
  
Oh yeah, and I don't own any of the characters in this story except for the ones that no one has heard of before, before they read this fic.  
  
It was only two days until the ceremony of Twelve and Rosemary was looking forward to finding out what her assignment was. Ever since the day she turned into an eight, she had been concentrating on doing her favorite thing so the Elders would assign her to what she wanted to do.  
Rosemary knew that this strategy really wasn't going to work in the end, but it was worth a try.  
  
The next day, the day before the ceremony of Twelve, Rosemary was walking to her daily lessons. She caught up with her friends, Rich and Violet.  
"Have you been thinking," Rosemary said thinking while she talked, "About the ceremony and what will happen if you get something you really don't want?"  
Rich piped in, "I know what I'd do, I'd just go through with it and maybe it would end up not being so bad."  
"I know, but what if you get something you really can't do?" Rosemary again asked with great thought.  
Violet finally talked, "The Elders wouldn't choose something for you that they knew you couldn't do. Remember, they know you."  
"Well, I guess your right. Forget I ever brought it up." Rosemary looked down at the ground.  
  
After lessons, the three together went to the House of the Old to put in their volunteer hours. Today they had to talk with the Old and listen to their stories. The Old always enjoyed talking about their past.  
"And then when I was a Five, I snuck out my brother's bicycle and tried to ride. It was quite easy actually." A woman named Penelope was telling Rosemary.  
"Wow, that's very interesting." Rosemary said.  
All of a sudden Rosemary was looking at Penelope and her eyes changed. She twitched.  
"Is there something wrong, dear?" Penelope asked.  
"Oh, no, it's nothing." Rosemary said shaking her head.  
Rosemary couldn't tell what it was that changed. It wasn't anything she had ever seen before. She finally decided it was just an illusion.  
  
Finally, it was the day of the ceremony of Twelve. Since Rosemary was 11-50, she would be the last of her group to find out what her assignment would be.  
Rich was 11-1 so he was going to be the first to know his future. Violet was 11-34 and content with her position. Not last and not first.  
Rich went up. His assignment was being the Nurterer. It was a simple job. There were hard parts about it too. When there are twins born, which is very rare, the Nurterer would have to choose which one would be released and which one wouldn't. The hardest part was he would be the one to release the unwanted twin.  
Even so, Rich walked off the stage with a smile on his face.  
Every number that passed, Rosemary thought of how many minutes it would be until she would walk up on the stage.  
"Number 34!!" The Chief Elder said.  
Violet smiled and walked up to the stage with shaky legs.  
Violet's assignment was in The House of the Old. She was happy about this because she really enjoyed her volunteer hours there.  
Everyone else went up, finally it was time for, "Number 50!!"  
Rosemary stood up and walked to the stage.  
"Not very many in this auditorium, have lived long enough to see this assignment given to someone. With that, I'll be very brief. Rosemary, you are the new Reciever of Memory." The Chief Elder sent Rosemary off stage.  
The crowd grew silent. All of the adults knew of the Receiver of Memory, but they had never thought of it much before.  
Rosemary's mother and father were proud even so. Silent, but proud.  
  
When she got home, Rosemary looked over her list of rules:  
  
Rosemary  
Receiver of Memory  
1. Go immediately at the end of School hours to the Annex entrance  
behind the House of the Old 2. You may ask any question of anyone you like. Rudeness does not matter  
for you  
anymore  
3. Do not discuss your training with anyone in the community  
4. You may not participate in dream-telling  
5. You may lie  
  
None of these rules really surprised Rosemary because since she had never heard of the assignment before, she knew that the rules would be very different for normal assignment rules.  
The next day, when she was done with school, Rosemary went behind the house of old and into the Annex room. The lady at the front desk let her in and told her to go to the back room.  
When she entered, she opened her mouth wide at everything that was inside.  
The only thing that really surprised her so much were the books that covered the walls. Rosemary had seen only books filled with rules. She couldn't comprehend what was in all of these other books.  
Suddenly, a man walked around the corner. He was Old. His hair was long and he had a beard, although his face wasn't full of wrinkles yet.  
Rosemary finally found her manners, "Oh, um, hello."  
"Welcome Rosemary." The man answered back.  
"You are very Old." She said as a complement.  
"Thank you."  
"Um, well, should we get started with what ever we have to do?" Rosemary asked shakily.  
"Yes, yes, we'll get to that. But since the Chief Elder did not tell you why you were chosen for this assignment, I will tell you.  
"Rosemary, I am the old Receiver of Memory. I went through the same thing you are going through now. Being the Receiver of Memory is a lonely job. It's also full of unexplainable," the old Receiver of Memory looked at Rosemary's serious, but very nervous face, "Well, never mind that." He breathed in deeply knowing he had just made a mistake.  
"Well, I was kind of expecting it to be lonely. But what was the last thing you were going to say? It's on the rules I can ask any question I want to but-"  
He interrupted, "There is nothing else, just loneliness, which you haven't quite experienced yet. Oh yes, and since you're now here, I'm now The Giver. You are the Receiver."  
"Then should we get started?" Rosemary asked, trying to sound excited and not nervous.  
"Very well. I might fell uncomfortable doing this, but you must take off your shirt." The Giver said softly.  
Rosemary took a deep breath and turned around. She took off her shirt.  
"Now lay on your stomach on that bed." The Giver said.  
She did.  
"What I will now do is transmit to you a memory that I have."  
Rosemary was unsure, "Will it hurt?"  
The Giver shook his head quickly. Knowing he was doing something wrong again, he said, "No-I mean- It won't hurt," He took a deep breath, "At all."  
Rosemary wasn't as nervous anymore. "Okay. I'm ready."  
The Giver put his hands on Rosemary's back. "I'm now going to give you the memory of the ocean. I know you don't have any idea what that is, but you will now."  
Rosemary didn't feel anything at first, just the cold hands of The Giver on her back. But then, she wasn't in the Annex room anymore. She was on some grainy surface. Her feet sunk in a little. It felt good. She also felt some kind of warmth on her back. She decided to open her eyes. Everything was different. The 'ocean' was like a 'blue', she got the word for it, infinity. She looked up, the 'sun' was shining on her giving warmth. She looked at the sand. It was 'brown'. She finally decided to open her real eyes.  
"That was beautiful. But I didn't know what the 'blue' and 'brown' were."  
"Those were colors Rosemary." The Giver was pleased that he had made her happy. He soon found out that he loved Rosemary. Not as a wife, like a father and his daughter. He decided that he would not hurt her, he could not hurt her. It would be too much for both of them.  
"I remember seeing 'brown' before. I saw it in the eyes of Penelope at the house of the old. It only lasted for a brief second, but I saw it."  
"Yes, you were seeing brown. That's one reason you were chosen to be the new Receiver of Memory. You have the ability to see beyond." The Giver said with a smile on his face.  
"Can you give me another memory?" Rosemary asked hopefully.  
"No. But tomorrow I will give you more. It's time for you to go now."  
"Okay." Rosemary said a little sadly.  
The Giver watched Rosemary walk out of the Annex room. He thought that he should have given her the memory of 'love'. Then he might have gotten a hug. "Well", he said to himself, "I guess I'll do that tomorrow."  
  
Hey, that was the first chapter of my story. I hope you liked it. Tell me your thoughts by reviewing it okay? I'll try to finish the second chapter as soon as I can. 


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